The FIDE Online Youth and Cadets World Cup 2021

Three Sri Lankan Players in the Final stage

The National Chess Champion, CM Ranindu Liyanage of Ananda College, the Number 3 Susal De Silva of Nalanda College and Young Oshini Gunawardena (above right) of Pushpadana High School, Ratnapura have been included in the Final Stage of the World Youth Chess Championship 2021 under 18 Open, 16 Open and 10 Girls events respectively as a wild card entries.

Susal one of the strongest Chess players in the country had the bext performance among Sri Lankan Chess players at the event, 7 ½ points out of 10 games in the under 16 Open category event. Susal beat Ajili Rayen(Tunesia), Taulananda Anon(Thailand), Chidvilash Sai Surapaneni(India), Arjun Sidharth S(India), Balaji Aaravamudhan(England), Popov Konstantin(Russia), Flores Quillas Diego Saul Rodri(Peru) drew with Hriday Dharmesh Sheth(India) and Lost to Tsaruk Maksim(Belorussia) and Aaryan Varshney(India) to score 7 ½ points to ranked 15^th in his age group in the world.

Ranindu playing with the strongest Chess Players in the world managed to score 7 points out of 10 games while young Oshini also had a considerable performance of 7 out of 10 games. Ranindu beat Salima Praise (Malawi), Kachkachishvili Lasha (Georgia), Mordido Justine Diego (Philippines), Kanyamarala Tarun (Ireland),   Ayush Sharma (India), Ahmadzada Ahmad (Azerbaijan), drew with Kushagra Mohan (India), Anuj Shrivatri (India) and lost to International Master – Saksham Rautela (India), Grandmaster- Batsuren Dambasuren (Mongolia) on his way to 7 points.

Oshini beat El Harrak Maryam (Morocco) , Nihira Koul(India), Chinkulkitniwat Purichaya (Thailand), Nivedita V C (India), Yatee Kothari (India), Myagmar Tselmeg (Mongolia), drew with Aydogan Arya (Turkey), Paragua Megan Althea (USA) and lost to Aadhya Jain (India),Nguyen Mai Chi (Vietnam) to finish with 7 points.

The FIDE Online World Cup 2021 – Youth and Cadets conducted by the International Chess Federation is organized by the Georgian Chess Federation this year. The World Cup has 10 category events for under 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 years Open and Girls. The event is held online in the Tornelo platform from 1^st to 30^th August 2021 with 10 rounds per each category followed by 16 player knocked out stage. The event started with two categories, under 10 Open and under 18 Girls to have it from 1^st to 5^th having 2 games each day. Other categories also followed giving 5 days per two categories each sessions, one open and one Girls.

Sri Lanka fielded 32 players, the 1^st three winners of Sri Lanka Online Youth Chess Championships and the National Chess Champion, Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage(Ananda College) and the Sri Lanka Number 1 ranked in FIDE Rating, Harshana Thilakaratne of Maliyadeva College.

Standings – Sri Lankan Players